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SUMMARY

There were 185.8 million litres of pure alcohol available for consumption from alcoholic beverages in Australia in 2016-17. This was a decrease from the amount available for consumption in 2015-16 (188.2 million litres).

A 3.4% decrease in pure alcohol from beer (or 2,593 thousand litres) between 2015-16 and 2016-17 was responsible for the overall decline in the volume of pure alcohol available. Comparatively less change in pure alcohol volumes was seen from pre-mixed or ready to drink beverages (RTDs) decreasing 0.7% (76 thousand litres) and cider decreasing 1.3% (82 thousand litres). In contrast, alcohol from wine grew 0.4% (299 thousand litres) and spirits grew 0.2% (45 thousand litres) over the year to 2016-17.

Of the total amount of pure alcohol available for consumption in 2016-17, beer contributed 39.2%, wine 38.3%, spirits 13.1%, RTDs 6.0% and cider 3.4%. Although beer has remained the leading source of alcohol over recent years, its share of total alcohol consumed has declined 2.1 percentage points since 2011-12 (from 41.2%). The declining share of alcohol from beer over the five years to 2016-17 has been taken up by wine and cider (up 0.6 and 1.7 percentage points respectively), while the share from spirits and RTDs was down by 0.3 percentage points.

On a per capita basis there were 9.4 litres of pure alcohol available for consumption per person in 2016-17, down from the amount in 2015-16 (9.7 litres) and is the lowest level since 1961-62 (9.4 litres).

While on the one hand, apparent consumption of alcohol figures will tend to overestimate the true level of alcohol consumed because adjustments have not been made for storage, wastage and other factors such as for alcohol used in cooking, on the other hand the per-capita estimates will under-estimate consumption among alcohol consumers because many people never actually consume alcohol. The 2014-15 National Health Survey data indicates that over one-fifth (21.3%) of the population aged 15 years and over had not consumed alcohol in the previous 12 months. Assuming this proportion of non-drinkers, the average alcohol consumption among alcohol consumers can be estimated at 12.0 litres per year in 2016-17. As a standard drink consists of 12.5 mls of pure alcohol, this is equivalent to an average of 2.6 standard drinks per day among the consumers, down from 2.7 in 2015-16.

TABLE 1: PURE ALCOHOL AVAILABLE FOR CONSUMPTION

Year ended 30 June

Beer

Wine(a)

Spirits

RTDs(b)

Cider(c)

Total

VOLUME OF PURE ALCOHOL ('000 litres)

201220132014201520162017

75 58575 11675 86272 10275 37172 778

69 04468 71968 89070 21970 86271 161

23 08024 03123 17423 43624 28024 325

12 49012 13011 61010 96211 30111 225

r3 116r4 237r5 172r6 220r6 3996 317

r183 315r184 234r184 708r182 939r188 214185 807

PER CAPITA CONSUMPTION OF PURE ALCOHOL(d) (litres)

201220132014201520162017

4.144.044.013.763.873.68

3.783.693.643.663.643.60

1.261.291.231.221.251.23

0.680.650.610.570.580.57

0.17r0.230.27r0.32r0.330.32

10.04r9.91r9.77r9.53r9.669.39

r revised (see paragraph 46 of the Explanatory Notes).(a) A number of changes in methodology have occurred from 2013-14 to 2016-17, therefore, comparisons between these years should be interpreted with caution. See paragraphs 18 to 25 of the Explanatory Notes for details.(b) Ready to Drink (pre-mixed) beverages.(c) See paragraphs 37 to 45 of the Explanatory Notes for information on how estimates of cider were calculated. (d) Litres per person aged 15 years and over.